Apple underwhelmed observers on Tuesday, updating its iPod nano line, shrinking its top-end iPod Classic (which now boasts a storage of 120GB rather than the 160GB versions sold previously) and offering a software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch – but not, as had been expected, a music subscription offer through iTunes.

The event was introduced by Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, who began with Mark Twain's famous line that "Reports of my death have been exaggerated" – a reference to the accidental publication of his obituary last month by financial services firm Bloomberg.

He also showed off a new version of iTunes – now up to version 8 – which includes "Genius", which automatically makes playlists of songs that "go together", based on anonymised data from other iTunes users about their playlists.

"Sounds like Last.FM's scrobelizer," commented Mark Mulligan, music analyst at Forrester Research, as he watched the event.

Jobs also showed off the new iPod nano – now longer and with an oval profile, which has an accelerometer so that you can "shake to shuffle". They also come in multiple colours. The iTunes Store added high-definition films, while NBC, which had fallen out with the company over its pricing strategy, had now returned to the fold – though there is no indication yet of whether Apple has acceded to NBC's earlier demand to be able to price film and TV shows as it desired, rather than Apple's flat pricing scheme.

Jobs also claimed that the iTunes Store is "the number one music distributor in any format". But there were no announcements about any extension of DRM-free music on iTunes, or – as Mulligan and other analysts had expected – of a subscription model for iTunes to compete with companies such as Nokia.

Jobs, making his first major public announcement since June – when his gaunt appearance sparked rumours that the pancreatic cancer that he was diagnosed with in October 2003 had recurred – still looked remarkably thin compared to his former self. But he made no reference to the rumours, apart from the Twain quote – which was his first presentation slide.